Kevin Feige Talks The Mandarin in 'Iron Man 3'

You've got to take everything that comes out of Marvel Studios with a grain of salt. By extension, you need to take everything that comes out of Kevin Feige's mouth with a grain of salt, since he's president of Marvel Studios and it's his duty to get you excited about his company's movies. However, let's indulge him for a moment, okay? Especially since he recently spoke about one of the more talked-about subjects of the week: Ben Kingsley's performance as the villainous Mandarin in 'Iron Man 3.'

When the trailer for 'Iron Man 3' hit earlier this week, the internet was a'buzzing about what was revealed. Still, there was one topic that reigned above the destruction of Tony Stark's home: what the heck is Ben Kingsley doing? Between his strange, shaggy/opulent appearance and his voice that seemed to drift across every continent, his take on the Mandarin instantly became a hot topic amongst the fanboy set, with many crying foul and some patiently reminding others that people had kneejerk reactions to Heath Ledger's take on the Joker (and look how that turned out).

Speaking to USA Today, Feige described what seeing Kingsley act on set was like (ready those salt shakers!):

"On his last take of his first full day as the Mandarin, when they yelled 'Cut!' the entire crew burst into applause, spearheaded by Mr. Downey himself. It was pretty amazing to see that."

It's not the kind of thing that's going to change anyone's minds (only the final, finished movie can do that), but hey, publicity is publicity, right? But to be perfectly fair, it's not like Sir Ben Kingsley needs to be defended from internet nerds. After all, this is Academy Award Winner Sir Ben Kingsley. We're pretty sure he doesn't care what the message boards are saying about him. He starred in 'Gandhi' and 'Bloodrayne.' He doesn't care what you think. Feige continued:

"That's what you get when you hire Sir Ben Kingsley. He's so excited about his part and so into this character, and frankly just scaring the heck out of everybody. They're like, 'You've broken us out of our skeptical malaise!'"

And that's all that's fit to print. What do you think? Are you excited to see Kingsley have a showdown with Iron Man? Or is the brieft snippet of the character in the trailer just not doing it for you?